Tales of the Unexpected: Three Fabulous Tassie Adventures

So, you think you know Tasmania? Find yourself pleasantly surprised by discovering these three experiences you may not have already heard about.
With just over 2500 kilometres of coastline as well as unexplored islands, highlands and roaring rivers, there’s an awful lot of the Apple Isle to discover.
But away from all the well-known tourist haunts – Port Arthur, Cradle Mountain, Freycinet – the island state offers plenty of unexpected adventures, all easily accessible by car, and none more than a couple of hours apart.
Here are three you might like to try.

Explore a “secret” island

What about looking for Tasmanian devils on a multi-award-winning four-day walk across Maria Island National Park (pronounced Mar-eye-ah, as in Mariah Carey). During the walk across the car-free island, you’ll feast on meals featuring the best in Tassie produce – think Huon Salmon and Ashgrove Cheese – and the finest local wines and beers, and spend your days meandering along beaches, swimming in the pristine waters and taking in billabongs teeming with wildlife. The legendary Tassie devil regularly makes appearances at the “glamping” sites. Your final night on Maria is spent in a colonial house in a World Heritage-listed convict precinct older than Port Arthur.

Great Walks of Australia The Maria Island Walk (Great Walks of Australia)

Raft down a mighty river

White-water rafting on the King River is not only a great physical activity, but it gives you a chance to see some of the gorge’s untamed beauty. The journey down the river, which is located in the West Coast Range not far from Queenstown, takes about six hours: and when you’re not paddling really hard, you’ll get to see stands of Huon pines, old mining settlements and hectares of bushland home to wallabies and a huge variety of birdlife. You’ll also pass the Garfield River platypus pool and the Sailor Jack Rapid and, after lunch, the old timber port of Teepokana.

King River Steam River & Raft Experience - King River Rafting (Tourism Tasmania and Rob Burnett)

Witness the Aurora Australis

Tasmania is one of the best spots in the world to see the phenomenon known as Aurora Australis, or the Southern Lights. Equally as stunning as the more famous Aurora Borealis of the Northern Hemisphere, you can see the lights in Tasmania year-round – but don’t expect the vivid greens and blues common to many photographs: the naked eye will see mainly white flickering light, “like dancing curtains of light across the sky”, as one photographer describes it. The Aurora Australis Tasmania Facebook page has excellent information about the phenomenon and where best to see it.

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